Stephen A Smith knows a thing or two about debates, and he believes former President Donald Trump lost Round One and desperately needs a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris in order to make up ground in the presidential election.
Smith argued why Harris was clearly the winner while analyzing the debate on Thursday’s episode of The Stephen A. Smith Show.
“I’m not going to mince my words,” Smith said. “She whipped his ass.”
VP Harris flipped the script in the debate pic.twitter.com/8lAr0WKZIe
— Stephen A Smith (@stephenasmith) September 12, 2024
Rather than Trump getting under his opponent’s skin like the American public has seen time and again in these formats since 2015, Smith believes the roles were reversed this week in a shocking way.
“She played the role of agitator,” Smith explained. “She did what Trump did. She reversed it.”
In an appearance on NewsNation with Chris Cuomo, Smith explained how Harris outwitted Trump in the first debate on ABC this week — and why Trump should agree to a second round.
“He definitely should because he got his butt whooped in the first debate,” Smith said. “But it wasn’t about substance; it was about style. And she won big time on the style points because she beat him at his own game.”
Stephen A. Smith weighs in on whether Donald Trump should accept another debate with Kamala Harris on ‘NewsNation’ with Chris Cuomo pic.twitter.com/FQSpCFGKzk
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 12, 2024
Smith believes Harris got Trump off his game and caused him to lose focus by feeding him bait and insulting him throughout the 90-minute event. Smith said Harris threw the first big punch by commenting on the crowd size at his rallies and calling him weak.
“All of these things played against him and toward her,” Smith said. “She didn’t even force him to play her; she beat him at his own game. She turned the tables, and he seemed ill-equipped to deal with it.”
Smith may not have won every debate against Skip Bayless or Max Kellerman on First Take, but he is a master of the art of argument. He knows how to construct a clear point and undermine potential disagreements in a concise manner. He is hard to beat.
Right now, Smith, who weighs in on politics more and more over time, believes Trump is too easy to beat and needs to correct that before a potential second debate.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.